6 Weeks, 6 Countries: My RTW Trip Update

Greetings from London!

And so here I am, at the end of the First Leg of my tour! It's crazy to think that barely 3 months ago I was still working at Bosley, savoring my last days in corporate America, and preparing for my Round The World trip as a full time vagabond!

Now, after about 6 weeks of non-stop globetripping, I am finally in London enjoying some down time with my very good friends who are taking turns taking me in. Life is good, people. Life is good.

Let us go through a quick summary of the past few weeks of my life, shall we?

After leaving Los Angeles, I spent about 3 more weeks working for Bosley in the Philippines before handing over the reigns to my successor, Maui. Then it was followed up by a month of basically bumming around in Manila, trying to spend as much time as I could with my friends and family before disembarking on this trip. Let's not forget the brief agony I had to go through, healing myself after my Eye Surgery.

Proper quality time with my good friends in Manila!

The month went by quickly, and before I knew it, off to OZ I went with my Shiny and Happy travel buddy, Karen. The trip started off a little shaky when Karen had a booking mishap, but she was thankfully able to join me in Sydney a few days later. Sydney was great, and I enjoyed it personally because I got to spend time with family, most of whom I never even knew till I got there!

We flew to Melbourne afterwards, staying with Tito Bogie and Tita Bes, two amazing hosts who took us around the city like pro tour guides! (Thanks guys!!)

I flew to Auckland alone, leaving Karen to work in OZ, and thus began my adventures as a Solo Female Traveler.

In New Zealand, I pretty much couchsurfed my way down from Auckland to Wellington...
Driving from Auckland...

To Mata Mata for Hobbiton

To Rotorua for some Maori Education

To Gisborne for the First Sunrise

To Napier for some amazing views...

And then finally to Wellington...

I fell completely in love with New Zealand, and flew out of there with a heavy heart... making a silent promise to myself that I will go back to Middle Earth, and conquer that beautiful place!

And then I was off to Japan!! Where I enjoyed the company of my high school best friend, and the amazing FOOD that the country offers...
I spent time in Tokyo where I got to experience the Japanese Tea Ceremony, thanks to Hotel Chinzanso...

And then we made our way down to Kyoto via the Shinkansen, where I spotted a Real Live Geisha!

After a week in Japan, off to the Middle East I went, to hang out with a few friends in Dubai.

Desert Sun, Lavish hotels, and a million malls later...

I am here. Finally... in London

...Working on "accidentally bumping into" Henry Cavill.

It has been quite an amazing journey already... I am bursting with stories I want to tell, and I've only just started! Now more than ever, I am reassured that I made the right decision quitting my job to travel. If I went back to LA now, after barely 2 months of being on the road, I'd already come back an enriched person. Imagine how much more could happen in a year?

Possibilities are endless.

I'm very happy to be in the UK right now... I think it's really good that I have some down time over here to keep from burning myself out from flying too much. Now at least I'd finally have the chance to catch you guys up on all the things I had to skip blogging about... For the next few weeks I'll be having a lot of "throwback" posts, mostly on the places I visited on this trip.

After that - it's off to Iceland I go! Or that's the plan at least... I don't really have everything figured out or set in stone yet, and oddly enough, I kinda like it that way. We'll see... I'll keep you guys posted.

In the meantime, I'll be bumming around in London ;)